South Korea to file complaint over judging in Kim defeat

Winner Adelina Sotnikova of Russia exults as silver medalist Yuna Kim of South Korea looks on during the victory ceremony for the women's figure skating competition at the 2014 Olympics.

Shamil Zhumatov / Reuters

Winner Adelina Sotnikova of Russia exults as silver medalist Yuna Kim of South Korea looks on during the victory ceremony for the women's figure skating competition at the 2014 Olympics.

Winner Adelina Sotnikova of Russia exults as silver medalist Yuna Kim of South Korea looks on during the victory ceremony for the women's figure skating competition at the 2014 Olympics. (Shamil Zhumatov / Reuters)

A month after the much-debated victory by Russia's Adelina Sotnikova over South Korea's Yuna Kim in the women's figure skating final at the Sochi Olympics, the Korean Olympic Committee and Korean Skating Union will file a formal complaint about the judging of the women's event to the International Skating Union's disciplinary committee.

"By making it official that the judging was unfair, KOC and KSU will do our best to prevent any unfair incidents to Korean athletes in the international skating and sports world," the statement said.

ISU rules allow filing of complaints to the disciiplinary commission within 60 days of the events in question.

In what is supposed to be a blind draw for judges, four of the nine changed between the short program and the free skate.

Two of the new judges sparked controversy because of their backgrounds. Both are identified by name in the Korean statement.

One was Alla Shekhovtseva, wife of Valentin Piseev, former president of the Russian Figure Skating Federation and its current general director. Another, Yuri Balkov of Ukraine, was suspended for one year for being part of a result-fixing affair in 1998.

“Would you rather have an idiot acting as a judge than a good one who is a relative of the manager of a federation?” Cinquanta said. “It is far more important to have a good judge than a possible conflict of interest.

“I can’t suspend a person for life for a minor violation. (Balkov) is a matter for the Ukraine federation because they chose to send him.”

The current judging system does not tell the public which judge gave which score, which is designed to allow a judge to resist pressure for home cooking.

But a major underlying problem in the judging was not addressed in the systemic changes that occurred after the pairs judging controversy at the 2002 Olympics. Judges have no real independence because national federations train them and decide which ones to nominate for big assignments.

Korean officials did not lodge an immediate protest over the composition of the judging panel. Such a protest had to be filed within an hour of the announcement of the panel. Friday's statement said the Koreans had been reviewing possible courses of action since then.

In the statement, an unidentified Korean official said, "We had to be extremely careful with our action because filing a complaint may adversely affect our relationships with the ISU and international figure skating judges, which could put our athletes at a disadvantage at future competitions.

"However, after deliberating over what would be the best course of action for our people, we decided to appeal with the ISU. We are aware of the problems that this move can cause.''

SOCHI, Russia — The image of a woman Korean television identified as Russian judge Alla Shekhovtseva hugging Russian gold medalist Adelina Sotnikova is being circulated as alleged evidence of a conspiracy to defeat South Korea’s Yuna Kim in the women’s Olympic figure skating...

SOCHI, Russia — Ottavio Cinquanta of Italy, president of figure skating’s international federation, was unaware of a controversy over the results in the Olympic women’s event that ended Thursday with Adelina Sotnikova of Russia beating defending champion Yuna Kim of South...

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